Tuesday, March 18, 2014

NEWS UPDATE: March 18th 2014

We don't generally schedule two Weekly News Updates in one week, but lots of brand-new exciting news announced this week, it would not be appropriate to address these super exciting announcements.

First off, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that sequels are in the works for Cars and The Incredibles at today's Disney Shareholders Meeting. No other info was included, but he did confirm that director Brad Bird is back at the helm for the second installment, and we can only speculate that the second film may pick up exactly where the first one left off. No release dates were released, but the earliest possibilities for these films would probably be 2017.

Also announced was a basic time-line for Disney's next Star Wars film set to be released in 2015. Iger explained that the new film will take place 30 years after the Return of the Jedi film and would include familiar faces as well as new characters. We're bummed out this probably means no Yoda, but still, we're get excited.

Disneyland Shanghai is set to open next year and a feature announced today was a "Pirates of the Caribbean" themed land named Treasure Cove along with the Pirates attraction, named "Battle of the Sunken Treasure" based off of all the films. The fifth Pirates of the Caribbean movie is also set to release 2015.

Concept art

The next legendary D23 Expo, was officially announced! The dates for the bi-annual event will be from August 14th-16th 2015. Advance tickets will go on sale on August 14th 2014 (a whole year in advance) and will be available for purchase on D23Expo.com.

Marvel is airing an exciting special tonight, named Assembling a Universe, which will offer lots of behind the scenes looks at Marvel films and sneak peeks at upcoming movies including Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, and even The Avengers: Days of Ultron. Be sure to watch it. It's at 8/7c on ABC, which is normally the time-slot for Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad reopened this week at Disneyland California after some renovation. We haven't had a chance to head down there ourselves to check it out, but Inside the Magic has, and they have a great new review on the latest update.

Disney's Maleficent, an upcoming movie telling the story of the famous Disney villain released another trailer today. For the past few days, the Twitter account (@Maleficent) urged everyone to follow before it was too late. The Twitter account went private two days ago, and only previous followers can now see the tweets. The account was releasing new photos and videos to it's followers and they were the first to see Maleficent's "wings".

The crew of Frozen went to visit the truly brilliant Hotel De Glace (Ice Hotel) in Quebec City, Canada. The Hotel had a special Frozen section built in celebration of the movie, and you can see video right here:

Speaking of Frozen, you can now purchase the film on Blu-Ray Combo Pack along with Saving Mr. Banks, The Jungle Book 2, Doc McStuffins: DocMobile, and the Muppets Most Wanted soundtrack. Your wallets are about to get lighter.

And what is in quite shocking news this week, a fish tank suddenly busted open in Downtown Disney's T- Rex Restaurant in Walt Disney World. The pipe had a rather large amount of water pouring out into the restaurant, and officials are still trying to figure out what caused the crack in the tank. You can watch an Instagram video of the leak here. Things did not go swimmingly (I'm sorry, I couldn't resist that pun).

The Pirate Fairy an all new adventure from Disney's Fairies franchise features actor Tom Hiddleston, and a clip of Hiddleston voicing Hook was released a few days ago. See it below!

Guests staying at Disney Aulani Resort in Hawaii were treated to a special screening of the movie with an appearance by Mae Whitman and producer Jenni Magee Cook! The Pirate Fairy will be available on April 1st 2014.

With Muppets Most Wanted coming out THIS Friday, we've got all the latest Muppet news covered in today's Muppet News Update on our sister site, The Muppet Mindset. Keep checking back for the latest news!